Thursday is Arthit's favorite weekday because he has no morning classes. His earliest class starts at 2 PM, leaving
him

with more time to sleep. But today, he can't do it because he's expecting Knot to drop by his room.

"Hey, Arthit." It's Knot's favorite greeting to him.

Arthit is still in his sleepwear, with hair looking like a nest of sparrows. "Come in."

Knot goes straight to the only chair available. They don't have anything particular to do. Knot already went to the gym earlier this morning, and he still has a few hours before their class starts, so he decided to visit his best friend.

"How are you, Arthit? I noticed you're quite happy these days. When will you tell us about the girl?"

With him randomly smiling at times, always checking his phone, and keeping a new hairstyle, it's not difficult to see the changes in Arthit after he dated Kongpob, even if they just became official a week ago.

"I..." Arthit doesn't know what to say. Actually, he has a lot to say. He can say that he has no girlfriend, but a boyfriend, and that boyfriend is Kongpob. He can come out to his best friend right now. However, he just woke up, and he cannot just gather all his courage to say everything now. "What girl?" That's all he says.

He stands up and grabs his towel, ready to take a shower. "You can watch the TV if you like." He walks past Knot and enters the bathroom.

Knot, having nothing else to do, just decides to turn the TV on. "Arthit! Where's the remote?"

"In the drawer, I think! Top drawer!"

Who keeps a TV remote in a drawer?

Knot opens the top drawer. "It's not here!"

He looks around, and there are other cabinets. So which top drawer? Instead of asking again, which requires too much effort from him, he just opens the top drawer of every cabinet in the room.

"Gotcha." He finds the remote in the cabinet near the bathroom. Something in the drawer catches his eye when he grabs the remote. It's a gear necklace. Whose gear is this? It's not Arthit's.

He remembers the night at the beach when Arthit asked Deer the meaning of the gear: "If you ask someone to take care of your gear, it means you ask that someone to take care of your heart."

Knot looks at the engraved number on the gear, "57."

So a freshman confessed to Arthit, and he accepted her? Why is he not telling me anything?

Knot tries to list the female freshmen in their faculty. N'Praepailin? N'Maprang? Who's that other one? N'May? Don't tell me it's the girl that hyperventilated!

Before he lists the other juniors he knows, Arthit steps out of the bathroom. "Ai'Knot, I thought you would watch the TV?" He finds Knot is holding Kongpob's gear.

"Knot..."

"What is this Arthit? You're hiding secrets now?" He's not really mad.

"Knot, it's not like that. It's-"

Before Arthit can complete his sentence, his phone rings. Arthit runs towards it. Knot rolls his eyes while exhaling a big sigh.

"Hello?"

"P'Arthit, are you busy? I'm sorry, but I don't have anyone right now. I'm at the basketball court, and I think... I sprained my ankle. I can't walk, and-"

"Why are you not careful?! Arghh!! Hold on, I'll be there."

He ends the call, puts on his pants and grabs his red jacket.

"Ai'Knot, I need to go now. I'll talk to you later, but I really need to go. Please lock the room when you leave."

Arthit gets out of his room in a flash, leaving Knot with no chance to respond.

What was that?

Knot returns the gear and the TV remote he wasn't able to use back in the drawer and leaves the room immediately. He has no idea what's going on, but he's sure of one thing: Arthit is going to his girlfriend.

 

~

May is on the university grounds to clear her mind. It's not easy to be rejected by the one you like after all. She appreciates M, but she's not just ready to move on from Kongpob yet.

She's content with sitting on the bleachers, watching the other students play sports. They have no classes today since their professor moved their class to another day, and instead of sulking in her room, she decides to visit the university. No classes, no Kongpob.

May doesn't want to be curious, but she wants to know who's the one Kongpob chose. However, as much as she wants to know who she is, she's sure she's not from their faculty since she doesn't see Kongpob with another girl aside from her, Praepailin and Maprang.

After a while, the afternoon sun gets too hot for her to handle, so she decides to go back to her room. She has other things that can keep her busy anyway.

When she walks past the basketball court, she sees Kongpob sitting on a bench who keeps on touching his ankle. What's he doing here? Is he injured? May gets flashbacks of the day she sprained her own ankle, the day Kongpob rejected him.

Kongpob keeps on looking around. I think he's waiting for someone. It might be her. She decides to wait for the person that will come.

 

~

Knot arrives at the university sweating. He ran so that he can catch Arthit in the act. He's that eager to find out who his girlfriend is.

Searching around for Arthit everywhere, Knot finally spots him. He's going to the basketball court. He follows his friend. With his size, hiding would be hard, so he has to be very careful.

He stops beside a post when he sees Arthit approaching someone. Is that 0062? From afar, he recognizes May also watching the two.

 

~

Arthit goes straight to the basketball court, and there, he finds Kongpob, sitting on a bench. Running towards his junior, he calls his name.

"Kongpob!" He kneels down to check his ankle. "Is it serious? Do you want to see a doctor?"

"I'm okay. I'll apply balm when I'm home. It should get better."

Arthit examines the injury. "Ow. Don't press it."

"Where's your motorcycle?"

"I didn't ride it today."

"Are you okay to walk now?"

"I guess."

"Let's try."

Arthit assists Kongpob to stand, but it doesn't last a second before pain hits Kongpob's ankle.

"Oww!"

"Sit down. You can't walk." Arthit puts him back on the bench.

He looks around the area. Most students have classes. Only a few students are here and there. He takes a deep breath.

"Here's what we do... You get on my back."

Kongpob questioningly looks at him. "It's okay. I'm heavy. I don't want to bother you that much."

"You don't need to mind about that. We... are dating aren't we?"

Kongpob almost breaks his neck when he looks back at Arthit. The latter doesn't wait for his answer and picks up Kongpob's shoe and positions himself in front of him. He feels Kongpob's weight on him, but as he said, they don't have to mind. He counts before standing up.

"Okay. Here we go."

Arthit is holding him on his hips to support him. And Kongpob, being the tease that he is, won't miss the opportunity to touch a part of his boyfriend too, so he cups Arthit's right chest.

"Kongpob! Your hand! Don't!" I thought you're hurt? Kongpob just chuckles.

"Am I heavy, P'Arthit?"

"No biggie. I'm fine."

"When I was young, I liked to have a piggyback ride on my father's back."

Arthit smiles. So I'm the daddy in this relationship, huh? Of course, he doesn't say that. "It must be very warm within your family."

"In fact... you are warm like Ai-Oon, your nickname."

"Yuck."

They venture through the basketball court, not caring about the people around them.

 

~

Arthit and Kongpob go straight towards Knot's direction, but neither notices him. It seems as if they are in their own world.

Knot notices his friend's genuine smile that he never saw before. At that moment, he realizes why it's difficult for Arthit to tell him everything.

When Arthit walks past him, Knot looks at May who's still standing still. After a moment, their eyes meet.

Knot decides to approach May, needing to talk to her about what she saw. Being Arthit's best friend, he can't help but be protective of him. Their secret should remain a secret until Arthit and Kongpob decides it's not.

"N'May."

She's still unsure how to process what she saw when her senior approached her. She greets him anyway, "Sawasdee ka, P'Knot."

He tries to lower his voice. "About what you saw... did you know something?"

"No, P'Knot. But I guess I do now." I know that Kongpob chose P'Arthit over me.

"Hey, hey. We don't know that yet."

"I saw their faces, P'Knot. They look so... in love."

Knot can't argue with that. They didn't even saw him when he's just right there.

He sighs. "Okay, okay. But you shouldn't tell anybody, understand?" May just looks at him.

He leads her to the bench where Kongpob was earlier.

"I know why they are not telling it to us. They're still afraid. In time, they will find the courage and tell it to us, so let's wait for them."

May finally nods. Knot looks around the area. Every couple is a straight couple. "If only there are others like them here, they will find it easy to come out. I'm not sure if this environment will be friendly towards them."

He lowers his head. Knot feels real guilt, too. He was there when they were making fun of Toota, and Arthit was there too. He's sure his best friend doesn't want to be made fun of. He also keeps on pressuring him about his girlfriend, not really knowing that he's not a girl. "It must be hard for him, for them," he whispers to himself.

They need their friends to trust them. But Knot himself doesn't know how he will be able to do that. May stays silent.

"Anyway, I have to go. My class is about to start soon. You, no class today? Are you heading home?"

"Yes, P'Knot."

He nods. They both stand up, ready to say goodbye. "I understand them, P'Knot. Don't worry. I won't tell anybody."

He nods and smiles. They trained their juniors right.

"Thank you, Nong. Take care going home."

 

~

When May walks towards her dorm, she feels somehow relieved. For some reason, she can't get jealous of Arthit.

When she reaches her room, she immediately goes to her bag and brings out the eraser she borrowed from Kongpob. She takes off the case and rubs off the letters she wrote on it.

She'll return it to Kongpob the following day.